Conservative commentator Mike Cernovich recently took to X to share an old policy that Donald Trump previously enacted that helped Californians mitigate the risk of wildfires. The post vindicates the president-elect, demonstrating that, even years before the crisis, he identified wildfire risk as an issue he sought to help Californians with. Some on the left have argued that Trump is only interested in politicizing the wildfire crisis to criticize liberal leaders such as Governor Gavin Newsom.
Cernnovich wrote, “Trump was right and tried helping California in 2020. Trump Administration Reduces Wildfire Risk Across Record 5.4 Million Acres | U.S. Department of the Interior,” while sharing the policy. The DOI policy explained that Trump’s initiative led to a 49 percent increase in the number of acres that had been treated since 2017.
Secretary Bernhardt said in the 2020 statement, “President Trump set aggressive targets to more effectively and actively manage our rangelands and forests to prevent catastrophic wildfires. He took bold action on this issue, which had been missing in previous administrations. Answering the call in hitting our significant milestones were our top-class wildland firefighter crews, who have been on the front lines working around the clock to conduct these preventative treatments and extinguish destructive blazes throughout the West this year. They deserve our unending appreciation.”
Users on X weighed in, giving their thoughts on the crisis at hand and how California leadership should have anticipated the fires. “California has never been able to grasp the concept of Wildfire Risk Reduction, every few years like clockwork this happens. I lived through 2 huge fires in CA, both should not have happened,” one person wrote.
Another person pointed out that Trump has long called for California’s forests to be raked, a process that would remove flammable underbrush, such as dead leaves, trees, etc., that often help spread forest fires. “The forest needs to be raked. They ridiculed Trump when he said that,” one person said. Another added, “The moronic fake environmentalists in California won’t let anybody clear underbrush. The Democrats even mocked Trump when he suggested people be allowed to do that. That’s part of the “treatments” the article mentions.”
President-elect Trump also addressed the problems with California’s forestry management during a 2024 episode of the Joe Rogan Experience. Trump made several points that California’s forests are far too dry and that they should divert water from up north, but refuse to do so for the sake of one fish species, the delta smelt.
“They said, ‘We have no water.’ I said, do you have a drought? ‘No, we don’t have a drought.’ I said, why do you have no water? ‘Because the water isn’t allowed to flow down,’” he said. “It’s got a natural flow from Canada all the way up north, more water than they could ever use. And in order to protect a tiny little fish, the water up north gets routed into the Pacific Ocean. Millions and millions of gallons of water gets poured.”
Trump continued, “I could have water for all of that land, water for your forests. You know your forests are dry as a bone.” Speaking about raking, he said, “They’re not allowed to rake their forests because you’re not allowed to touch it.” He added, “And all they have to do is clean their forest, meaning rake it up, get rid of the leaves, you know, leaves that are sitting there for five years.”
Watch Trump below:
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